INCREASING THE ACCURACY OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY ACCOUNTING AT REDUCED LOAD.

The object of research is a three-phase electricity metering unit, which includes a digital meter and measuring current transformers. The reduction of non-technological energy losses is restrained due to the insufficient accuracy of the accounting of electric energy in distribution power networks under a reduced load current of the metering unit. The possibility of representing the dependence of the relative error of electricity measurement on current values by a fuzzy function at reduced load has been confirmed. The boundaries of such a function are approximated with sufficient accuracy by the sum of two exponents, which is explained by its significant nonlinearity in the range of reduced current. The proposed EMRL software allows to estimate the real consumption and the most possible level of underaccounting based on the array of electricity meter readings. The accuracy of estimating by the EMRL the amount of electricity consumed with a probability of 0.7 can be estimated with a relative error not exceeding 2 %. The probability of psychophysical assessments of the accuracy of EMRL «very good» and «good» is at least 0.833. The trend of a significant decrease in the relative value of underaccounting with an increase in the level of electricity consumption was revealed. With a daily consumption of up to 10 kW·h, the amount of underaccounting can reach 18 %, and with a consumption of more than 20 kW·h, it does not exceed 6 %. The adequacy of the results of estimating the amount of consumed electricity at reduced load using the EMRL was confirmed by experimental data at a significance level of 0.05. The software capabilities allow to increase the accuracy of the accounting of electrical energy in distribution networks with a reduced load current of the metering unit. The program can be used as part of automated systems of commercial electricity metering or advanced metering infrastructure to determine the most possible underaccounting due to the operation of metering units at a reduced load [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]